Second "Design Recharge" Interview: April 1, 2015In this second interview with Diane Gibbs at "Design Recharge" we focus on International Fake Journal Month. If you're wondering just what that is, I give a great description of it, and why you might want to participate. Also check out our earlier interview (below on this list) if you want more information about how I approach visual journaling.

First "Design Recharge" Interview: February 12, 2015Diane Gibbs of Design Recharge interviewed me for International Fake Journal Month (2015). We get a little side tracked and talk a lot about sketching, visual journaling, and my creative process. It's a great interview.

Where Is Roz Blogging?

Podcasts with Roz

Danny Gregory and I Discuss Visual JournalingSadly a two part podcast from May 2008 made with Danny Gregory, author of "An Illustrated Life," is not currently available. We talked about journaling, art media, and materials…If this becomes available again in the future I will let you know.

Finding Bits of TimeRicë Freeman-Zachery, author of "Creative Time and Space," talks to me about finding time to be creative. (Taped October 23, 2009.)

The Faber-Castell Pitt Artist's Calligraphy Pen is just so under utilized as far as I'm concerned. I talk about it to people all the time and they look at me as if I'm from another planet.

It's the same great India ink that is in the rest of the Faber-Castell Pitt pen line. That means it's waterproof like the other pens and almost immediately after you put down your lines dries so quickly you can paint on it.

And because the pen tip is a chisel shape for calligraphy writing you can tilt the pen tip on an edge and sketch a thin line, or ride the tip down the page flat for a wider line.

I find that when they start to run out of ink they get a lovely almost "graphite" shading tone to them. (I have other images like that I'll show you on another day.)

Don't give up on those fiber pens, even when they seem to be running out. I typically have 5 older pens sitting next to my chair, or in my non-drawing hand. I find that I can draw with one for a few minutes and then it sort of dries out, then I start drawing with another old pen, until it does the same, and so on. If you start sketching with an older pen it also makes lighter lines to begin with and that might be less intimidating to you when you are putting your first marks down on the paper if you have a heavy hand and your marks are otherwise very dark.

(And of course to get to that stage of the pen's life you'll have to put a lot of drawing practice in, so it's all good!)

There will come a time when you'll only get a few strokes out of an older pen, and then it is sadly, time to say good bye. Until then there are a lot of marks to make.

The Faber-Castell Pitt Artist's Calligraphy Pen is just so under utilized as far as I'm concerned. I talk about it to people all the time and they look at me as if I'm from another planet.

It's the same great India ink that is in the rest of the Faber-Castell Pitt pen line. That means it's waterproof like the other pens and almost immediately after you put down your lines dries so quickly you can paint on it.

And because the pen tip is a chisel shape for calligraphy writing you can tilt the pen tip on an edge and sketch a thin line, or ride the tip down the page flat for a wider line.

I find that when they start to run out of ink they get a lovely almost "graphite" shading tone to them. (I have other images like that I'll show you on another day.)

Don't give up on those fiber pens, even when they seem to be running out. I typically have 5 older pens sitting next to my chair, or in my non-drawing hand. I find that I can draw with one for a few minutes and then it sort of dries out, then I start drawing with another old pen, until it does the same, and so on. If you start sketching with an older pen it also makes lighter lines to begin with and that might be less intimidating to you when you are putting your first marks down on the paper if you have a heavy hand and your marks are otherwise very dark.

(And of course to get to that stage of the pen's life you'll have to put a lot of drawing practice in, so it's all good!)

There will come a time when you'll only get a few strokes out of an older pen, and then it is sadly, time to say good bye. Until then there are a lot of marks to make.